Since he arrived, about to turn 34, we already knew that Robert Lewandowski’s time at Barça would be few and well-said words. And the Pole has not disappointed. His commitment to the club has been impeccable from day one. An almost military discipline with respect to nutrition and physical exercise, impeccable in training and with an influence on the locker room typical of a consecrated figure in European football. The chapter of adaptation to the city has been even more fluid. Both he and his wife, the trainer and nutritionist Anna Lewandowska, and his daughters Klara and Laura have fallen in love with Barcelona and Catalonia, and leave constant examples on social networks. What we also knew when Lewandowski signed for Barça was that, with each season that passed, he would have a year older. Or one year less of a professional career, depending on how you look at it.
In his debut as a Blaugrana he finished as the top scorer in the League, with 23 goals. This season, with five games to go, the hat-trick against Valencia has allowed them to narrowly re-engage in the fight for Pichichi. In August he will turn 36. Not a bad face or a gesture of anger when Xavi changed him in the 64th minute of the last classic. He physically couldn’t take it anymore and was as aware as the technician. Lewandowski is very close to ceasing to be what Barça needs from him. And not because of lack of will or carelessness. He simply can’t anymore.
What Xavi’s Barça needs is a striker with a goal who is also the first defender when the team does not have the ball. A Samuel Eto’o, to understand us. A predator of the area totally committed to defensive work. And this commitment requires a physical investment that Lewandowski can no longer offer, not so much in head and heart but in legs. What Barça needs is an Eto’o like the Pichichi of 2006 or the Eto’o of 2007, when he averaged almost a goal per game after a serious injury. That Eto’o who was clear that he had to run like a black man to live like a white man. That Eto’o, too, of the dirty work, of the constant pressure on the opponent’s ball. Xavi shared the locker room and grass with the Cameroonian, he was one of his assistants. Genius and figure, yes. But he also fights, voracity, participation, progression. Decisive, as in Paris and Rome.
And, now, the coach sees clearly that Lewandowski can no longer be the number 9 he needs, he cannot be Eto’o. He has one more year on his contract that he doesn’t seem willing to give up. He will not accept the role of substitute either, in that he does resemble Eto’o. If the sports management is able to find a replacement for him – only in this case – Xavi will have to deploy his locker room management skills to communicate to a star of European football that his moment has passed.
